


Between the lines of fear and blame

by Afraid_Of_Change



Category: Degrassi
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 16:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6383278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Afraid_Of_Change/pseuds/Afraid_Of_Change
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace has messed up, she knows that, but she had to protect Zoe from herself. Zoe didn't need protection however, Grace does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Secrets

Despite what Maya had told her before, she decided she was going to show up anyway. The dress she had bought for this evening had been expensive and she was almost completely certain she was never going to wear it again. After she took her pills, promised her dad she would be fine, put on her dress, did her make-up and then her hair, her mother drove her to the dance. The drive was quiet and calm, which she usually preferred but this time she hated it because it gave her time to think. She had really messed up things with Zoe and she didn't know how to fix things. She thought back to the morning that had changed it all.

_Sitting in the classroom she was nervous about what she was about to do. She thought back to last night, it had been a disaster. Not the sex tough, it was great. Zoe had been her first but it had been soft and sweet. No where it went wrong was the moment right after, where they had laid in each arms and just stared at each other. Zoe fell asleep soon after and she was just so... so incredibly beautiful. And as she laid there looking at this girl who she had started loving without noticing, she knew it could never happen again. She knew she couldn't do it. She couldn't suck somebody into her pit of hopelessness and darkness, Zoe deserved better than that. They could be friends, sure, as friends they'd probably lose touch after high school. Then Zoe would hear about her passing and be sad, yes, but she'd get over it quickly. If this happened again however, Grace knew she wouldn't be able to put an end to it, they'd stay together until either Zoe couldn't handle it anymore or until she died. Both situations would end in a painful amount of tears, hurt and guilt and Grace wanted none of it. By the time her alarm clock notified her it was time to wake up she had made her decision and knew how she was going to have to do it. Zoe left her house early to pick up some things from her house and Grace took her pills and ate breakfast. She looked up her schedule and noticed that the first class she had with Zoe was her third period. That was when she was going to have to end things. ___

Her plan had been simple: to let Zoe down and make sure she made clear they could never be. She had claimed not to be gay, she snorted thinking back on it, and then when Zoe wanted proof she just named Zig, who happened to walk into the room, as having had a crush on. The look on Zoe's face was heart wrenching and she had almost given in to the urge to hug her before telling herself this was really, truly necessary. She had never meant for Zoe to hook-up with Zig and ruin Mayas relationship. She just wanted to protect everyone around her from losing her by distancing herself. She sighed loudly and her mom looked at her. 'You okay sweetie? You sure you can go?' She asked. Grace nodded and answered her mother reassured: 'Yes mom, everything is fine. Just thinking about homework that's all.' Her mom looked at her worriedly before answering her: 'You know I could talk to your teachers and ask them for an extension if things are too busy for you sweetheart, I'm sure they'd understand.' Grace nodded before again reassuring her mom it was fine, she then hopped out of the car and waved her mom goodbye. She looked at Degrassi.  
The school was old and she liked that, she liked history, the school dated back to the eighties and Grace wondered if in all those years there had been people attending the school who'd screwed up as big as she had. She took in a few deep breaths before finally entering the school. 


	2. Apologize

She was just wandering around the dance, not really paying attention to anyone or anything, just wishing things were different when she heard the voice of a woman indicating there was a lockdown. She was pushed inside a room with people she didn't know and wondered what was going on and where her friends were. Was there a maniac at the dance? Were they all going to die? Or was it just a prank, a way of ruining a somewhat nice evening? And where was everyone? Grace thought she was going to lose her mind if she was stuck in the small room for any longer but then the cops freed them and told them it was just a joke. Grace was relieved and realized more than ever that she was very much in love with Zoe. She'd always known she was going to die young from cystic fibrosis, she just hadn't realized she could die any minute from something else. Why should she be extra careful? She loved Zoe and dammit she wanted to spend the limited time she had with her. 

Right now, however, she couldn't exactly find her. She did find Maya and Zig, fighting over their relationship and felt guilty. If she hadn't lied to Zoe about liking him they would've never broken up! Maya turned to walk away and saw her and hugged her. 'Don't ever lie to me again.' She said. Grace had tears in her eyes and knew the right thing to do was to tell her. Grace stared at her before asking her: "Can we go somewhere private? I have to tell you something." Grace was nervous as she led Maya to a table in the far corner of the dance, she noticed that sometimes a few students would walk by but overall it was calm. She sat her drink down in front of her and stared at it while also clasping onto it. "Maya I'm really sorry, I really am, I never meant for any of this to happen. I just." She began, not making any sense. Maya noticed and interrupted her: "I'm sorry Grace I don't understand what you mean? Why don't you start at the beginning?" Grace nodded before finding the right words to say: "Right, it started a while ago, over summer. Zoe and I got close, really close. She... fell for me I guess. We kissed but I ignored it, I thought if I did then she'd let it go. Then when school started at first it was just cool, you know? We were just friends, good friends. But then she kissed me again and I knew I couldn't ignore my own feelings anymore. Anyway, we kinda circled around each other before hooking up one evening. The evening you had left for New York. But... I just, I couldn't do it. I couldn't. There was just no way it was going to end well for us and I thought I had to protect her. So I lied and told her I wasn't gay or bi and that I was, well straight." It took her a lot of strength to say this and she hadn't even reached the truly horrible stuff yet. Maya then interrupted her, again, as she took a big sip of her drink: "Gosh Grace I didn't even know about any of this! Why did you never tell me? But what does this have to do with me, I mean why do you feel so guilty?" Grace sighed, knowing she was about to possible end their friendship: "Well you see, Zoe wanted proof I was into guys so she asked me to name one guy I ever had feelings for.. And well I was panicked and so I just.. said Zig. I didn't even mean to 'cause I never had feelings for him but he walked in and I didn't know what to do and so I just. I didn't want Zoe to go after him, but she did, to make me jealous. She's not a bad person she was heartbroken. That video was meant for me, Maya, so I'd see what I'd done. I wanted to tell you about Zig but how could I? You love him so much. I'm truly sorry, please, just say something, anything!" 

Maya stared at her in shock, gasping for air. She then reached for her drink and threw it in Graces face. "You?! My boyfriend cheated on me because you were to scared to admit to your insane, sex-crazed friend that you liked her? What is wrong with you?" Maya had now stood up from the chair and started screaming at her. As if things couldn't get any worse, Zig, Zoe and Tiny came running to the commotion. Zig got between the girls and faced Maya before asking: "What the hell is going on here? Maya what are you on about?' Maya tried to grab a fist of Grace's hair but Zig held her wrists as Tiny held her back from behind. 'She ruined it! Us! She, She, Ugh!" Maya screamed. Then she looked at Grace who was trying to stable herself, holding onto the table and staring at the ground: "And then you lied to me? In my face, saying you didn't know what was going on, bullshit, look at me!" Maya looked at the crowd and pointed at Zoe. "You know, I actually feel bad for you. You couldn't help it you were in love with this freak! Hey, I said look at me, look at what you did because you couldn't admit to being gay!" 

Grace was now leaning onto the table even more. Her face was paler than usual and sweaty. She started to feel light-headed and coughed. Blood dripped down from her mouth. "I'm really sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Zig, Maya, Tiny and Zoe looked at her in fear and shock. "Grace? What's going on?" Zig then asked looking worried at his friend. Zoe rushed over to Grace but was too late as Graces knees gave in and her head bumped the side of the table. Graces body fell to the left and dragged along the tablecloth and all the glasswork on the table. It shattered on her and Grace ended up with little wounds all over her body, add that to the bit of blood she had coughed up and the small wound on her head and the sight was a complete disaster. Zoe screamed "GRACE!" As she knelt down and put Grace in the recovery position. She held Graces head as she vomited so she wouldn't suffocate in her own vomit. She then screamed at Tiny, Maya and Zig to help her. "Zig, call her mom, ask her what their regular hospital is. Maya go find a teacher. Tiny call 911 and tell them to rush." Tiny got out of his phone and dialed 911. Tristan had also arrived at the scene and immediately started keeping everyone at a safe distance. Meanwhile Zoe heard Tiny answer the regular questions: what kind of help they needed, where they were, what had happened. Then he looked at her and asked her: "Does she have any prior history of sickness? I didn't think so but..." She then nodded and took a breath before saying: "She has cystic fibrosis, I've seen her when she has trouble with it, she also coughs up blood and is tired but never like this. She's sweaty, also." He looked at her in shock and she wondered if he had understood it before he surprised her and repeated everything to the operator. Zoe then looked down at Grace, she tried waking her by shaking her and then proceeded to wake her by pinching her but it didn't work. She then started talking, she didn't even realized she was doing it, and crying: "Please, please don't. Don't do this to me. I can't lose you, not again. Never again. Please, please, oh God, please." What seemed liked seconds had been minutes and the paramedics came in. They took over from Zoe who got up, ready to go with them to the hospital. But they told her there was no room, no matter how hard she tried. Eventually she gave up and was left in the gym wearing a bloodstained dress. Tristan walked over and led her by the arm to his car. He put her in the front seat and told Maya, Zig and Tiny to get in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter and didn't mind Maya was OOC, but it needed to be that way for this story to work. Please leave a kudo or comment if you enjoyed it, the people who've already done that are awesome. Updates will be weekly because I'm really bussy with school right now but who knows maybe I'll speed it up.


	3. Airplanes

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick... The clock annoyed her, as if she wasn't aware of time. It was exactly 2:38 AM. Grace had arrived at the hospital at 0:44, they had arrived later even with Tristans fast driving at 1:03. She had sat down on a nearby couch and hadn't moved since. Graces mother and younger sister, named Christina, had walked into the small waiting room at 1:29 but had since moved into a private room where they were discussing Graces treatment with the doctors. Zoe looked around the room, one of the first reactions she had given since their arrival. Maya was tapping her foot on the floor and occasionally got up to pace up and down the waiting room. Sometimes she was crying other times she was calm and kept apologizing to Zoe. Saying she hadn't meant to upset Grace or some other kind op bullshit. Maya was just trying to justify her fit against Grace because of her conscience, she knew she had messed up and felt guilty. Zoe knew, because she felt it too. Why did she have to get revenge on Grace? Why did she mess up things for Maya and Zig? Why was she so set on ruining herself she ruined everyone around her? What was wrong with her? 

She looked at Tristan, who had been dozing off to her right but now looked at her. "I did this, Tris, I did this. It's my fault. It's my fault. It's my fault. IT'S ALL MY FAULT." She ended up screaming the words and Tristan looked at her in shock, she hadn't respond in hours. She was hysterically screaming and crying and trying to not fall off the couch. She did however and was now on her knees just balling. Tristan got down at her level and just held her. Maya and Tiny looked at her in shock and sympathy, both placing a hand on her shoulder and back telling her it wasn't her fault. Zig also looked at her but he was calm and just stared. "It's not, you know that right? If anyones it's my fault. If I just hadn't been so jealous and insecure and actually trusted my girlfriend none of this would've happened. Instead, I screwed up and this the result." He spoke calmly and at ease, as if he was completely sure and had gone over it a hundred times. Zoe had calmed down a bit and was just laying in Tristans arms. Tristan sighed before speaking "No, Zigmund, this isn't your fault either. Yes you were a dick but that doesn't mean you had anything to do with making Grace sick and neither did you, Zoe, okay? We don't even know what happened, it was probably because of her cystic fibrosis and we all know nothing but shitty genes are the cause of that." Maya nodded before saying:"Besides, if anyone should be blamed it should be me. I mean, she's one my closest friends and what do I do? I scream at her for ruining my relationship. It was just... so not worth it. I should've been more thoughtful to her, she couldn't help it that this was how things ended op being." Tristan sighed before opening his mouth to protest, yet again, but before he could was interrupted by Tiny snorting. "Really? Are you all going to do this to yourselves? Just making assumptions, thinking: "Oh, if only I hadn't done that, everything would've been different." No it wouldn't have been! What everyone of y'all did had absolutely nothing to do with what happened. It was an unfortunate case of coincidence and that's all. If I notice anyone blaming themselves for this again, I will stomp you in the arm and tell you you're being a bitch. Because we should all be focussing on Grace and on her only. Everyone has made mistakes, everyone, I know everyone in this room has at least. Not just with this, in general, so stop being selfish and let's just hope Grace comes out of this okay." With that he stood up and walked towards the door, taking out his phone. "I'm just gonna call my parents and Lola real quick, let them know the situation and why I'm not home yet." He then nodded at them and left the room. Tristan helped Zoe up on the couch where she was calming down. He got up to get her a cup of water and to also call his parents. 

Now left in the room alone were Maya, Zig and Zoe. They had all already called their parents so they couldn't use that excuse to get out of the room. Zoe then spoke, her voice thick from crying and hiccuping: "I never meant to ruin your relationship, I really didn't. I was just... so in love and then when she turned me down I just snapped I guess. I'm sorry." Maya looked at her before speaking: "I know what that feels like. I shouldn't have come at Grace like that I just didn't know. I'm sorry too." Zig nodded at both of them: "So am I, I never meant to hurt anyone." With that, the atmosphere in the room seemed to clear as everyone took a few deep breaths and settled in for the remaining hours. Graces mom walked into the room at 3:46 AM, surprised to see everyone was still there. Then the group was explained what had happened. Graces mom took the word: "It's good to see Grace has such good friends. She gonna need them. Oddly the doctors have found that her lungs haven't worsened, her CT-scan showed the same results as a few weeks back. That's good news, but it doesn't explain what happened to her. The doctors think that Grace may have overdosed on drugs, they're searching for traces of it in Graces blood. I don't want to make any assumptions but, if you did do drugs then right now is the time to step forward." The group looked at her father in fear and confusion. Zig was the first one to find the right words: "I'm sorry madam, but, and I'm speaking for everyone in this room, we're pretty sure nobody at the dance was doing drugs. With everything that happened that was the last thing on our mind and even then Grace is one of the most healthy people I know in terms of exercising and following a specific diet. She'd never take drugs, not on purpose at least." Graces mom nodded as if she known that but wanted to be reassured. "I thought so too but there's just no way of knowing it a hundred percent and that's what's important right now. The most likely situation then is that she was drugged by somebody who wanted to date-rape her. But we'll leave the guessing to the police. Grace is in a coma from this GHB overdose but that sounds worse than it is: Grace is sleeping until her body has gotten rid off the GHB in her system, after that they'll have to keep her protected to make sure she doesn't catch a lung infection while she recovers. Then if everything goes well she'll be out of here in no time! That's what we gotta pray for anyway. Christina and I are staying in the hospital to be close to Grace but there's nothing special we can do for her now, she'll have to kick this overdose herself. I appreciate you waiting here and know that it must have been exhausting so we'll let you see her for a short while but then you should leave and get some rest. We'll still be here tomorrow if you want to visit a bit longer but now it's just a short 2 minute visit per pair. Who wants to go first?" Zoe was having a hard time holding back tears so Tristan told Maya, Zig and Tiny to go visit her first. After 6 minutes they came back, all holding back tears to make sure Zoe wouldn't be too scared to visit Grace but, it had been horrible. Tiny squeezed Zoes shoulder then told her that they wouldn't leave immediately but that they'd wait for them to finish. The small gesture made Zoe feel a bit more comfortable and confident but her legs were still shaking when she left the waiting room. She turned a corner left, then another corner right and stopped in front of the electronic doors to wash her hands, making sure they were clean so she didn't give Grace an infection. The electronic doors then opened as Tristan did the same. They faced a screen that told them where all the patients on the floor were, a certain Miss Cardinal was in bed 15. They turned another corner to the right, then another one to the left entering the open rooms of the patients. Zoe curiously looked inside the rooms to see if she'd recognize Grace in any of them. The second room to her right was fairly small and just before the nurses station, Zoe peaked a look inside and stopped in her tracks, making Tristan knock into her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again so much for reading! If you leave/have left a kudo/comment, you're amazing! Have I mentioned already that updates are gonna be weekly? Oh and just so you know, if it isn't clear already: Christina is Graces sister and Merinda is her mother, her father isn't in the picture. Also, I wanted to let Zig tell Merinda that none of them would ever do drugs but them I remembered they legit all have done that at some point. Next chapter is a bit different, as in different povs but I hope you'll stick with it.


	4. Bitter Sweet Symphony

Graces head starts to fill with clouds and she can't think straight anymore. "I'm really sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Is the only thing she can mutter. Her whole balance is off so she tries to balance herself by leaning onto the table. A feeling she knows all too well creeps up on her and she coughs. She's only seeing black at this point and her cloudy head makes it impossible to react when her knees give in. Her head bumps the side of the table as her body slides down. In a desperate attempt to save herself from falling to the ground she tried to hold onto the tablecloth but failed to and fell to the ground. Grace felt as if roots were tying her down, she was unable to move or even react. Inside her, it felt as if she had swallowed dirt and she gagged. Right at that moment she felt as if she was drowning, while still being restricted by the tree roots. There was nothing she could do but let herself drown. From far-away she could hear the deformed sounds of people talking but she couldn't understand them, it was just gibberish. Then in a moment of clarity she hears Zoe say: 'I can't lose you.' But after that it's gibberish again. After a while she gives up on trying to understand what the people above the surface are saying. 

 

"Okay everyone, heads-up! Got a 17 year old patient, Grace Cardinal, coming in for unknown reasons. Patient has cystic fibrosis and got unwell at a school dance. Our main priority is making sure her lungs haven't been infected so let's do a CT-scan and also test her blood for any of the main bacteria that cause cystic fibrosis. Williams, you're doing the CT-scan, Stephens, you're gonna tap her blood and hand it to the lab department and make sure they test for everything. Then Robinson, Ford and me will treat any other injuries we'll get upon." The experienced doctor then nods and heads towards the emergency entry with a bunch of other doctors and nurses following her. The doors open as the paramedics wheel Grace inside, they're giving her extra oxygen and begin explaining Graces injuries to the hospital staff. One of the nurses takes over from the paramedic as Robinson flashes a light in Graces eyes to see if she is corresponding. He shakes his head so Ford orders the doctors to intubate the patient. Stephens head into the room they've just gotten to and taps Graces blood. He then hurries towards the lab department. 

Ford looks doubtfully at Martinez, the experienced doctor, before speaking: "I don't think this is a lung infection, it's completely different." Martinez looks puzzled: "Then why did you order the nurses to intubate her?" Ford looks at the girl and then says: "Just because she has trouble breathing doesn't mean she has an infection. Her troubles manifested at a dance, that's an easy place to get drugs or alcohol. I think she overdosed, the symptoms match a GHB overdose in particular." Martinez looks questioned but nods, if anyone has a lot of experience with drug overdoses it'd be Ford. The guy knew what he was talking about and if the truly believed this was the case he was probably right. "Okay, but just to be sure I want Williams to do the CT-scan immediately. Also, somebody go tell the lab to also test for alcohol and drugs, GHB in particular. Oh and tell them to hurry up with the results, this influences every decision we're gonna make from now. Oh and another thing, somebody go get all those little glass splinters out of her skin." 

Martinez then walked over to the nurses desk where an older woman was seated. "Nicole, do you know if anyone came in with our last patient and have her parents or caretakers been notified of the hospitalization yet?" Nicole looked up from her computer screen, she was having a long night that just kept getting worse. On top of that she was fighting with her husband and kept forgetting information she could normally recount at any given time. "Is this the 17 year old girl? Because if so a few friends are in the waiting room I think, I've already told someone to go tell them they're gonna have to wait. They said that they had indeed already called her mother, she's on her way here right now. What should I tell her when she arrives, who is her main doctor you or Ford?" Nicole then took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "I'm her main doctor so just tell them to come to my office, I'll ask them if their daughter does drugs or drinks a lot. So that's probably gonna be interesting. How are you doing, why are you so tired?" She asks her. Nicole sighs before answering: "I'm alright, just minor troubles in paradise you know how that goes, it'll be fine. It will, has been for the last thirty years at least. Anyway, have you and Adriana worked out your troubles yet? You were such good friends, I don't believe one fight over something so stupid should stand in the way of that. But you're both Taurusses so I'm not surprised, both stubborn as hell." Martinez laughed at the last comment, Nicole always found a way to include astrology. She stopped laughing quickly when a freightend mother and a young girl walked into the room and asked Nicole where their daughter was. 

"Hello, I'm your daughters main doctor actually, Sophia Martinez. We're treating you're daughter right now, but she is not in immediate danger. Why don't we go to my office to discuss?" Martinez shook the mother and daughters hand before leading them towards her office. They all said down and Martinez started questioning the mom immediately: "Mrs Cardinal, I regret asking you this but, does your daughter have any known history with alcohol or drugs? In particular GHB, we think she may have overdosed on that." Mrs Cardinal was shocked: "How dare you assume my daughter does drugs? She always takes good care of her body, she knows it's very dangerous with her condition to do any of those things. There's just no way Gracie would willingly take drugs." Christina was too shocked to speak but nodded in agreement. "I understand madam, but, teenagers do stupid things. Are you a hundred percent sure there isn't even the slightest chance?" Martinez had seen this before, moms who were absolutely sure their kid didn't do drugs, yet several minutes later those kids showed all the detox symptoms. "I suppose there's a chance. I need to ask her friends then but I don't know where they are." "That's okay madam, we'd still have to wait for the lab results to come in to be totally sure. For now, we're just gonna make sure Grace is asleep so she can recover from her injuries. I have understood that Grace suffers from cystic fibrosis, that is unfortunate. Let me tell you what our plan is..." Martinez started explaining. 

It was now almost 4 AM and Martinez was tired. She was looking over the CT-scan results again with Ford to make sure they hadn't missed a thing. Stephens walked into the room with a file. "You were right, GHB in her bloodstream!" Ford nodded before excusing himself to call Mrs Cardinal with the results. Martinez yawned as she opened the file. "Damn, that's a lot of GHB, this person was either roofied or very inexperienced with taking drugs. Sleeping this off is gonna take them a while." She then also excused herself and went to check up on the girl. She walked into the room and apparently a private conversation between the patient and another girl. The girl was crying and telling the other person they couldn't lose them, how they'd messed up and wanted another chance, a boy was supporting her. Martinez waited outside of the room to give them some privacy then after they left walked into the room. A young nurse, named Florence, walked in as well and asked Martinez: "So, what happened to the girl?" Martinez sighed before answering: "Drug overdose, big one. Probably roofied or else very inexperienced. It's sad, isn't it?" Florence nodded before alternating some things in the room. Martinez left soon after. She ended her shift at 5 AM and went home. She showered and then expected to fall asleep but couldn't. She kept thinking of Adriana. Nicole was right, their friendship couldn't end because of something so not worth it. Thinking of the girls she had seen in the hospital, she knew even better than before that not everyone gets a second chance. A few seconds later a dial sound could be heard. "Hello? This is Adriana who am I speaking with?" "Hi Adriana, it's me, Sophia. Look, I'm really sorry..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again so much for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter; please leave a comment. That way I know if I'm doing a good job or if I should change anything to make this story better for all of you. Also, I have probably made some mistakes with all the medical stuff, I'm sorry if I did. I don't have that much experience with it, but I did try to research it, if that's worth anything. By the way; you should also remember Florence and Adriana, they'll pop up again later in this story.  
> Next chapter will be from Graces mother, Merinda, POV.


	5. Family Portrait

Merinda Cardinal just finished working on a long and difficult project and just wanted to lay on the couch and do nothing. Then, she remembered she had to drive Grace to her high school dance, she sighed before getting off the couch. Merinda was putting on her boots when her daughter walked downstaires. "Wow honey, you look beautiful, you ready to go?" Merinda asked her daughter. Grace nodded and got out of the house. Merinda said goodbye to her other daughter, Christina, before closing the frontdoor and opening up the car. The drive was silent, something Merinda knew Grace preferred but it worried her a bit. Grace just stared out the window the entire time, lost in her own thoughts. Merinda went over everything Grace could be thinking about: "Was it a boy? Was something wrong with a friend? Or was it school, was it all getting too busy? That last thing must be it, it seemed the most logical." Her daughter sighed loudly and Merinda spoke, "You okay sweetie? You sure you can go?" Grace nodded before telling her: "Yes mom, everything is fine. Just thinking about homework that's all." Merinda began to get worried, maybe her daughter needed some time off: "You know I could talk to your teachers and ask them for an extension if things are too busy for you sweetheart, I'm sure they'd understand." Her daughter nodded again but dismissed her idea, "It'll be fine mom, I'll manage. I gotta go now, bye!" Grace quickly got out of the car, leaving Merinda to worry about her daughter. She looked at Grace, as she looked up to the school before entering it. Without noticing, Merinda started to talk aloud, "Oh sweetie, why is life so hard on you? I just wished I knew how to help you." She then drove back home. 

"Christina! I'm home, could you stay up until your sister gets back? I'm really tired so I'm going to lay in bed." Her youngest daughter nodded and said. "Sure mom, don't worry about it." Before settling herself on the couch with her iPad. Merinda sighed before heading upstairs. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow, she was so incredibly tired. 

The next thing Merinda knows is that she's sitting on a bench in what appears to be a room of an aquarium. The room is closed off; there are no doors. There is a window, however, it's placed exactly before her. Merinda tries to stand up from the bench, but her legs don't obey. She's stuck on the bench so she decides to look out the window. It appears as if she's under ground, because all she can see is water and plants on the bottom of the place. What strikes her though, is that there aren't any fish or water animals. The place is completely deserted. A few minutes go by where she just stares at the calmness of the water, but then she hears the faint sound of a splash somewhere along the surface. A female figure appears, sinking until she's almost at the bottom of the place but still far above it. Merinda tries to look at the face of the woman, but is unable to do so because the woman is being grasped by roots. Merinda tries to see where the roots came from but she can't see anything because of the bubbles the female created. The womans face is turned away from her but Merinda can see that the woman has dark hair and that she's wearing a white, angelic dress. Merinda then tries to tell the woman that she needs to wake up and try to swim to the surface, Merinda even tries to break the glass to try and save the woman but it doesn't work out. She grows more frantic with every second. She doesn't even know why it's so important for her to save the woman, but it is. 

From a place far away Merinda can hear the desperate and emotional voice of her youngest daughter starting off softly: "Mom? Mom? Mom, please wake up I don't know what to do. Mom?! MOM!" As Christina speaks the last word, Merinda jarts awake. She looks around the room desorientated, before noticing her daughter. "What's wrong sweete? Why are you crying?" She asks Christina. Christina takes a deep breath before answering: "It's Grace, mom, something happened at the dance. The Archangel General Hospital just called, we need to go there right now!" Merinda was shocked but nodded, not fully grasping what was happening. She grabbed her purse and keys and drove towards the hospital, praying to God to not have baby die on her just yet. After she was done praying she realized she hadn't done that in years. Religion had always been her ex-husbands way of dealing with issues, she had always dislikes it about him and wanted their kids to not only know about Christianity but also about the aboriginals as it was a big part of herself. After the divorce she had given up the religion immediately and sometimes regretted naming her children Grace and Christina. "Isn't it weird how in times of crisis we fall back on the things we're most familair with?" She thought to herself. 

Merinda and Christina arrived at the hospital at 1:20 AM. They both jumped out of the car and ran towards the desk. Merinda took the word: "Excuse me, miss? I'd like to know where my daughter is being treated, her name is Grace Cordelia Cardinal, she was just brought in." The lady at the front desk nodded and then typed in the information on the computer. She looked up and told Merinda and Christina: "I see, you're daughter was brought in 40 minutes ago, the doctors are still busy with her but when they're finishes she'll be placed on the intensive care. Some of her friends who called 911 are already waiting in the waiting room on that floor. I suggest you go to the 7th floor, where the intensive care patients are. The nurse in charge of the station there will direct you to the main doctor on your daughters case if they're finishes by then. If not, then you'll have to wait for them to do so in one of the waiting rooms." Merinda thanked the lady and then made her way over to the elevators. She arrived at the 7th floor and checked all the waiting rooms for any of Graces friends. The last one proofed to be succesful. A young, tall, dark skinned boy looked up from where he was sitting and shook her hand: "Hello mrs Cardinal, we haven't heard anything yet." Merinda nodded and then thanked the kid for filling her in. She then made her way over to the desk, where a young, hispanic woman in a doctors coat was laughing about something an old woman had said. "Excuse me, I'm looking for my daughter, Grace Cordelia Cardinal?" She asked the old nurse with a frightened voice. 

"Okay, Mrs Cardinal, did you catch all that? Do you understand what our plan is, do you agree with it?" Merinda nodded, even though, she actually did not catch everything the young, hispanic woman had told her. "Yes, I understand. And agree, of course. I just... Could I see my daughter right now, please?" Her voice sounded weird, even to her, and she had to swallow away the lump that had settled in her throat. The doctor, Merinda had forgotten her name, nodded and stood up from her chair. She then led Merinda and Christina out of the office and showed them to one of Graces nurses, who took them towards her room. "She's stable but be careful with her, she could catch a lung infection and that would make things worse. I'm going to finish my round, if there's anything you'd like to know, please contact me. Here, let me write down the phone number of the intensive care wing. Don't be afraid to call, even if it's just for a random check-up in the middle of the night. My name is Florence, I'll be working this morning and after noon. Are you going to be the contact person for Miss Cardinal?" The young, nice looking lady said. Mrs Cardinal nodded, then gave the lady her phone number. The nurse smiled and left the room. Merinda turned around and immediately started crying. "No, no, no, no, no. Oh, my baby, my baby." She wanted to tell her daughter so many things but she just couldn't. All that came out was: "Gracie, my baby." So she just grabbed her daughters hand and squeezed it. After a few minutes she couldn't bear it anymore so she left the room, followed by Christina who hadn't said a word. "We should tell her friends what's going on, they deserve to know and have a few minutes with her as well. Plus, we need to ask them about the drug incident." Merinda told her daughter, who again nodded. 

Merinda was satisfied, Graces friends had confirmed what she had already known: her daughter would never do drugs. She called the hospital wing and the young nurse, Florence she believed her name was, picked up. Merinda told her what she had just heared and the nurse promised she would let the doctor know. She then noticed how tired she really was, it was 4:20 AM right now and she knew she couldn't do anything more for her daughter. She looked at her youngest daughter and then said: "We should go home, there's nothing we can do for Grace right now. But we need to rest. Tomorrow we can visit again, then sunday as well and then we can go to the police on monday and see if they can find the son of a bitch that did this. Okay?" Christina nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again so much for reading! Please leave a comment or kudo if you're still enjoying this story, it helps to motivate me. I don't know if I'll update chapter 6 on time, but I'm gonna try!


	6. Both Of Us

"Gr-, Grace." Zoe stuttered as she covered her mouth with her hand, tears started to well up and she just couldn't speak anymore. Tristan gasped at the side of what had always been a though, fierce, goth girl. It almost seemed like nothing was left inside, like Grace had become an empty shell. Hooked onto a bunch of machines, heavily medicated, intubated and paler then they had ever seen her, lied Grace. Zoe moved to grab Graces hand and felt that it was really hot and clammy but she grabbed it anyway. Standing on the tip of her toes to reach Graces face, she wiped some hairs out of Graces face. She then tried to tell Grace all kinds of things that she thought Grace needed to hear right now, like she had always seen people do in movies. But she couldn't, it was as if her voice just wasn't corresponding with her brain. After a few minutes of opening her mouth to try and say something but then closing it again at a loss of words she heard Tristan's voice becoming more clear. It appeared he had been talking for a while: "... And I never told you this Grace, but you are kinda what I want to be, you know? Like, fierce, independent, not afraid to speak your mind all those things. I know you can wake up from this, because you are one of the strongest persons I know and because you and Zoe are meant to be. You're supposed to, you know, live happily ever after." Zoe looked loving and thankful to her best friend for saying what she wanted Grace to hear. She them squeezed a few words out: "I'm so sorry Grace, so sorry. Please don't leave, not yet, please don't. Oh God, I don't think I can live without you. I just can't!" Then she started bawling again and Tristan had to support her. He helped her back to the waiting room where he sat her down on a chair and discussed things with Maya, Zig and Tiny.

"God." Was all Tristan could say and they all nodded in agreement. "I just, I just... I wasn't expecting that, you know? Like, I knew it was bad. But this?" Zig said before shaking his head. Tristan nodded before saying: "Yeah, I know what you mean. There's nothing we more we can do right now though. We should go home, get some rest. I'll drop everyone off, go home get some sleep. Then I'll take Zoe to see Grace tomo- I mean this afternoon. Do any of you want to visit tomo- later?" Maya looked at Zig before replying: "I think I'm just gonna get some sleep, process everything that happened and then visit Grace tomorrow. Tomorrow as in Sunday. That way it'll be more calm for Grace as well. But you guys can also go tomo- later, I don't mind." But Zig and Tiny shook their hand before agreeing to do the same thing. The group of teens then helped Zoe up and left the hospital. As Zoe passed the nurses desk, she could hear the soft voice of an older woman saying: "I know Paul, I don't blame you. I have always loved you and I always will." 45 Minutes later Zoe was lying in bed, not even crying anymore.

 

Tristan yawns, the adrenaline that had taken over was now wearing off and he was tired. He didn't want to go home however. Home would just be his parents asking him questions and him being fed up with them. His thoughts also kept coming back to Miles and Hunter so when he found himself driving up to the Hollingsworth's gates, he wasn't even the slightest bit surprised by himself. A few minutes later a voice is heard: "Hello? Who is here at... 4 in the morning?" The annoyed voice of Miles Hollingsworth asked. "It's me, Tristan. I... I don't know, something.... happened. Can I just come in, please?" A few seconds later he heard the buzzing sound of the gates opening. 

"Tris! What happened? What's wrong?" Miles frantically asked when he opened the front door. Tristan sighed, put his keys in his jacket and answered: "Something happened with Grace, she got drugged at the dance and passed out. She is in a coma right now because of it, I just came back from Archangel Hospital. Zoe was a mess, apparently Grace and Maya had gotten into a big fight about Zoe and Zig and everyone was just blaming themselves. But God, seeing someone like that... It's just horrible. I wouldn't want that for my worst enemy." Miles stares in shock at Tristan. "Damn, that's... Horrible." He takes Tristan's coat, puts it on a big chair and gestures for Tristan to join him in the living room. Tristan sits down on the couch while Miles quickly makes a go for the kitchen. "Right? And besides that: Grace has cystic fibrosis! I can't believe Grace never told anyone about it. Except Zoe apparently, because she knew." Tristan heard Miles snort in the kitchen followed by the rambling of glasses. "Water? Or something stronger?" Tristan hesitated before settling for water, saying he couldn't drink because he had to drive Zoe to the hospital in a few hours. Miles put the glass on the table in front of them and looked at Tristan: "What are you doing here Tris? I mean, I appreciate the update and I feel really bad for Grace and Zoe, but why are you here and not at home, sleeping?" Tristan rubbed his eyes and then answered: "I just wanted to talk to you, you know, about Hunter. What even happened today, or yesterday for that matter?" Miles answered: "I honestly don't know, I've never seen him like that. I want to help him but I don't know if I can do that alone." Tristan instantly replied: "Of course you can't do it alone, nobody could. He needs help, like professional help. Are you even sure he didn't take your fathers gun?" Miles was silent, not wanting to lie to Tristan but also not wanting to break the promise he had made to his little brother. Tristan caught on though, his eyes big from shock. "He did, didn't he? Oh my god, he wanted to kill someone? You need to tell your parents, he needs help Miles!" Miles gestured for him to keep his voice down, before answering him: "Don't you think I know that? It's just... I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone. I feel like if I do, he might... hurt himself." Tristan shook his head. "No. I'm sorry but that's a promise you just can't keep. Plus, he might do something to himself or someone else if he doesn't get help. Trust me, it's better to intervene and have him be pissed at you then to do nothing and have him end up dead. Even if it seems like it's not that bad yet, like it can wait. It can't, okay? I did that once and... Let's just say I still feel guilty about it from time to time. I don't want that for you." Miles looked at Tristan, curious to know what he was talking about but not wanting to bring up any painful memories. He then nodded, because he had already known that this was the right thing to do, he just hadn't admitted it. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Anyway, you should get some sleep but it's probably best if you don't get home at... 4:40 AM. So, how about you go sleep in my bed? I'll stay in here and pick Zoe up in a few hours to go to the hospital so you don't have to hurry. Maybe I can talk to a psychiatric there, ask for advice or something. Tristan is so tired that he just smiles, nods, thanks Miles for everything and then goes to Miles' bedroom. He falls asleep as soon as he lies down. Miles turns on the television and grabs his laptop from the table. He starts searching Hunter's symptoms: outbursts of anger, very emotional, wanting to hurt others and themselves...

 

Zoe drags herself out of bed at 10:30 AM, still tired but not wanting to fall asleep again. She was surprised she had even managed to fall asleep in the first place. She put on a simple but comfortable outfit. She puts on a simple but comfortable outfit, manages to eat a sandwich, brushes her teeth, puts on a coat and then says goodbye to her mother. Waiting outside for Tristan is what she needs right now, the cold December air calms her down. She closes her eyes for a second to enjoy the wind, but then she hears the honking of a car. She opens her eyes and has to blink twice to process what she is seeing. "Miles? What are you doing here? I can't meet with you, I have to go to the hospital, Tristan is supposed to give me a ride." Miles nods then answers: "I know what's happened, Tristan told me. He came by my place this morning, tired. So I told him I would drive you to the hospital, is that okay?" Confused but satisfied Zoe got into the car. Miles turned on the radio. They reached the hospital in 30 minutes, not speaking a single word the entire time. When they got to the ICU Graces mother asked Zoe if she could wait 45 minutes to visit Grace, so she and Christina could visit Grace. Zoe agreed, not wanting to bother Graces family but still being upset. Miles saw that she was upset and asked: "Have you had lunch yet?" 

It didn't take long to find a table in the hospital cafeteria, as a doctor and a nurse had just finished eating. They smiled at the teenagers before walking away. Miles could hear the nurse ask the doctor if anything had changed in a young woman's condition and wondered if they were talking about Grace. Zoe hadn't heard the women however, she had quickly sat down and started eating. Miles then also put his tray down and started eating the dish he had ordered. He quite enjoyed it, although it was nowhere near as good as he was used to. After they had both finished eating, they still had 20 minutes to spare. "So...", Miles started. "You and Grace? I mean I'm not surprised that something was going on, I kinda figured that out last summer..." Zoe sighed then replied: "Yeah yeah, you don't have to be so witty about it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people have figured it out by now. I'm a crazy, lovesick, lesbian slut and I don't even know how anyone could be all that." Miles responds defensive to Zoe's statement: "Hey, I never tried to be witty and no not everyone has heard about Grace yet so I don't think they've figured it out yet. And even if they do: screw what they think! You're not a crazy, lovesick, lesbian slut. You've made mistakes but that doesn't make you a slut. You've handled things a bit differently than how most people would handle them, but that doesn't make you crazy. Trust me, I've seen a lot of crazy these past couple of days and you're not it. Besides, all those things you did? You did them out of heartbreak. Now I get why you wouldn't want other people to call you these things, but what does it matter if people think you're a lesbian? You know the truth about yourself, you know who you are. Why would your sexuality change any of that? Most people just want to put labels on everyone, it makes life easier for them to have everything organized. But personally, I think you can't do that. People are who they are and they love who they love. Love can not be labeled." Zoe stared at Miles in awe, nodded then said: "Yeah exactly. I mean I've dated boys and now I've fallen for a girl and honestly I don't identify myself as bisexual or straight or gay or... You know what I mean? I'm just me, I just love Grace right now and that's it." Miles nodded. "I have the same thing, I've dated girls and that was good. But now I've dated a guy and that was also good. Really good actually." Zoe looked at Miles disgusted: "Ew! I do not need to know about how good Tris was. That's disgusting! But really though, what's going on between the two of you?" Miles had started laughing at Zoe but was now serious: "Oh I don't know. I screwed up Zoe. I messed with him, manipulated him. I don't even know why he still wants to be friends with me. I don't understand how anyone wants to be friends with me honestly, the things that I've done... I just want to be friends with Tristan right now, fix things between us. Then we'll see if he still wants to be with me. I need to just let it be and see where it goes." Zoe looked at Miles, silently wishing that they would indeed fix things and end up together. After all, Tristan and Miles had been the happiest when they were together. Zoe also felt something else: understanding. Especially the last thing Miles said spoke to her. They then got up and walked to Graces room. 

"Should I come with you, or?" Miles asked, not sure what to do. Zoe shook her head. "Only if you really want to, but you don't have to. I need to just tell her somethings." Miles nodded and sat down in the waiting room. Zoe walked up to the room and breathed in. She took Grace's hand into hers and looked at Grace's face. She then spoke the words she didn't want to speak but knew she had to: "Grace. I don't even know if you can here me right now. I want to pretend you can, like they do in the movies, but... Anyway, if you can hear me, I just want you to know that- that I understand if you... if you let go. If you just let things be things and leave. I'd understand, really I would. I think everyone would understand. And I don't want you to, because I love you and I want to spend every minute of my time with you, but I'd understand. Okay? So you can let go and just... see where things go, or something. I don't- I don't know what I'm supposed to say anymore. I'm sorry." With that, she left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many words! Thank you again so much for reading and for all the kudos you've left, they made my day. Also, I managed to post this story on time, mainly because this story wrote itself. I feel like this was some of my best work yet, so I hope you liked it as well. Next chapter will focus on Tiny, Lola, Zig, Maya and Florence. I hope to see you again next week. Please leave a kudo or maybe even a comment, I really appreciate them.


	7. Six Degrees Of Separation

"Okay, this is our stop. Thanks for driving us, let me know when you hear something." With that, Tiny and Zig exited Tristan's car and walked up to the house where they had been living for the past months. They both had separate rooms, which they entered after saying goodnight to each other. Tiny rubbed his head and then his eyes. He was extremely tired, but had to call Lola before he went to bed. She was friends with Zoe and she cared about her but didn't want to call her in fear of her reaction. She also knew how important Grace was to Tiny, not romantically but as a friend. So Tiny had offered to call her when he came back from the hospital, to just let her know about things. He got out his phone and called her. A drowsy voice answered: "Hello? Tiny?" He smiled, she was always so... happy, excited and bubbly but also so caring. "Hey Lo, I just got back from the hospital. I'm alright, tired but alright. Did I wake you up? If so, I'm sorry, maybe I should've texted you instead." "What? No! Don't apologize, I was waiting for your call but... I got really tired. Anyway, how was it, do you know more about Grace's situation? Did you get a chance to see her? And how was Zoe, any better than the last time you called?" Tiny took a deep breath and started answering Lola's questions. "It was... Horrible, I guess. They're not entirely sure what happened yet, but it looks like she was drugged at the dance. She's in a coma because of it, doctors said there's not much they can do. She just has to sleep it off and wake up. But, because she has cystic fibrosis there's a big risk involved: she can't get infected, otherwise her situation will only get worse. I also saw her. I don't know though, it wasn't really her. She was just lying there and she looked so not herself, she looked like a... a shell, or a case but not like a person. Zoe was doing a bit better before we went to see Grace, but afterwards it was terrible. She couldn't even walk on her own anymore." Lola had kept quiet the entire time he spoke and he really appreciated it. After a few seconds, just when he started doubting if she was still there, she spoke: "I don't- I don't know what I'm supposed to say. How did this even happen? How did we get here?" Lola had spoken so seriously, he wondered if they were still talking about the same thing. He responded with a "I have no idea." And he truly meant it. Because no matter how hard he tried to, he felt like something was greatly missing and he had no idea what. 

A few hours later Tiny was well rested again, so he made his way over to Lola's place. As soon as he rang the doorbell, the door opened and Lola hugged him. They kept standing like that for a while, in the street in plain sight. For a while, everything was good, perfect even. But the longer it took, the less comfortable Tiny became and Lola noticed. She let go of him to grab a coat and her keys and then closed the front door behind her. They both started walking, not knowing where they were going, in silence. After a while, they reached a bench and sat down on it. "So...", Tiny started. Lola replied. "Yeah." They both smiled, not of joy but of sadness. "I guess we just... got together at the absolute worst time." Lola said, as if their relationship had already been ended. Tiny nodded. "I guess so, but that doesn't take away the fact that I do truly care for you. I don't want you to get hurt." "I'm not the only one who's ever gotten hurt. That's life." Lola told him and he got mad at himself for letting this amazing girl slip out of his hands. She's perfect, why can't I just be happy with what I have? He thought. But he knew the answer and so did she. Still, he felt the intense need to apologize. "It doesn't matter if that's what life is. I'm sorry." She nodded and looked thankful. "I understand, I don't blame you. We rushed into things, like I said: or timing was off. We should've waited a few weeks, gotten to know each other better. Discussed certain things with our friends, stuff like that." He replied with: "Yeah, stuff like that." She got up from the bench and gave him a final hug. And he swears he hears her whisper: "Go for it." Before she turns around and walks off. 

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Zig nocks on the front door of the Matlin residence. Maya opens it and let's him in. She sits down at the kitchen table and he follows her lead. "So...", she starts. "Yeah.", he replies. She then took the word: a "I still can't believe this actually happened. I always thought of Grace as invincible, you know? Strong. But seeing her like that, it just made me realize that it's not worth it. Any of this that has been going on, just seems unimportant. That's why I wanted to talk to you, to clear the air between us. I can see why you did what you did. I don't approve, but I understand. It's not entirely your fault or relationship didn't work out. I still care about you, I do. But I don't think I can forget what you did. So I'm sorry Zig, I know you're not a bad guy, but I can't get back together with you. I need time and space to clear my thoughts and to process everything that happened the past couple of weeks. I'm not locking a potential future, just definitely not right now. Okay?" Zig had been silent, just listening to his former girlfriend and remembering how amazing she was. He nodded and felt thankful, but right after he felt guilty. Why was he allowed to feel so happy with everything that he had done, and why was Grace in the hospital even though she had been a way better person than him? It just didn't make sense to him. 

"Okay, here is your change and the receipt. I hope you had a nice meal. Have a good evening and we hope to see you again someday!" She said with her usual cheerful voice. "Thank you so much and we will definitely come back sometime soon. Bye!" The female customer, an old lady who was apparently celebrating some kind of anniversary with her husband, said to her. She waved goodbye to them with a smile. As soon as they disappeared from sight her smile faded, she was simply too tired to function. Even though she had understood Tiny's feelings yesterday morning, a few hours later she had found herself uncontrollably crying in the bathtub. The pain in her chest had almost become unbearable and she just kept wondering why she wasn't good enough. A hour later she had called Frankie, still crying, but the latter had told Lola she was busy and that she couldn't come over to comfort her. Crying, she had gone through her contacts and realized that no matter how many 'friends' she had, she had no one to call in that moment. Frankie was too 'busy' with something, which made her mad because it felt like Frankie was telling her she was overreacting and Frankie had no right to tell her that with the way she had been acting the entire year, and she couldn't call Shay because... Well because she had been the reason why Tiny and her even broke up in the first place. Lola didn't necessarily blame her, she just didn't want to be anywhere near her so she wouldn't be reminded. When Shay had first told her that she still had feelings for Tiny and that she wasn't fine with the two of them being together, Lola had kind of dismissed it by saying she really liked Tiny. She had though she could move past it, forget it. But after hearing what happened with Grace and Zoe, she couldn't. She couldn't be with Tiny, it just didn't feel right anymore. How could she be in a healthy relationship with Tiny, knowing she had come between him and one of her best friends, knowing she ruined their chances of being happy? She had though about it the entire night, eventually falling asleep because she was so tired and sad before being awoken a few minutes later by Tiny calling. For some reason when the break-up was actually happening, she was calm and seemingly at peace with it. What a difference a few hours make. Eventually she had dragged herself out of the bathtub, into her bed and had fallen asleep. Now she was here, serving the last few customers of her parent's restaurant. The last customers were a young woman and a young men, who she assumed were a couple. That fact made her sad, because she had been serving couples the entire day. It almost felt like they were messing with her, like every couple in town decided to eat here a day after she broke up. "Lola, go and serve this to those last customers! Vamos!" One of the other employees said to her. She picked up two glasses, put them on a tray and walked over to the customers. They were laughing almost hysterical and she couldn't help but get slightly annoyed. She put the drinks down in front of them and smiled at the two. "Wow, you two look like a nice couple." For some reason this made the two laugh even more hysterical and Lola wondered to what she owned the pleasure of working exactly today. "We're not... We're not a couple. That would be weird and illegal for that matter. We're brother and sister." The guy explained and Lola felt like the biggest idiot in the world. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I never meant to-" "It's fine, I mean I get it we don't look alike at all." The lady told her and she nodded. "Well, no matter, let me offer you like a coupon or something. Please, just to make me feel less bad!" She almost sounded desperate at this point. "Sweetie, it's fine really. Why are you worrying so bad?" Lola sighed, opened her mouth but then shut it again. "I don't- I don't know. I just broke up with someone and I'm just... So confused. Oh my, what am I doing? I shouldn't tell you this, you just want to have a drink." The woman gestures for her to take a seat at the table and she does, the woman then answers Lola: "What? Oh sweetie that is terrible, I'm so sorry. Have you told anyone this yet? I'm Florence by the way." Lola shakes her head: "No, we broke up because I knew one of my friends was in love with him. So, she wasn't really someone I wanted to talk with. My other friend was... busy. Or so she said. Oh, and my name is Lola." Lola then sat down. "Damn", the boy said, "That sucks, I don't understand why anyone would do that. Oh and I'm named Ezra, almost forgot to mention that." Lola looked at him thankfully and nodded. "Well, I'm sure that your friend didn't mean it like that. Maybe something was going on at the same time? If not, then it's really weird and you should talk to her about it. In person though, not via text or whatever you all do nowadays." Florence said. Lola nodded again: "Yeah, maybe that's it. I hope that's it, otherwise I have to find new friends." She laughed, before continuing. "Anyway, this was really nice of you to do, but I have to get back to work. I have to clean this place up or my parents will be mad." Florence and Ezra nodded and smiled at her, all of sudden Ezra seemed to realize something. "Wait, you said your name was Lola right? Are you the Lola from this place?" Lola grinned, sighed and thanked the siblings for visiting Lola's Cantina. And when she walked back to the kitchen she felt a bit more okay with the break-up. There was one thing she knew for sure: this break-up was way bigger than any other break-up she had ever gone through, so she needed to take her time to recover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this and a special thank you to the guest that recently left a kudo, I appreciate it. Also: Happy Mothersday! I feel a bit sad because my break is ending so I have school tomorrow. Luckily I have already written a lot of the next chapter. After that, it's one more chapter and a sequel and that's it! Can't believe how fast things go.


	8. Drops Of Jupiter

Adriana Ramirez placed her coat over her chair and her bag onto the table. It was 9 AM and she had just come in at work, everywhere people were preparing for a new day. But if she was honest with herself she already knew she wasn't gonna get a lot done today. Two days before she had gotten a phone call from one of her closest friends. The phone call had been though, both girls had trouble admitting defeat. They had cleared the air, but it was no where near where it used to be. There was still an awkward, tense atmosphere when the two talked. Adriana hoped it would soon pass, but she knew it needed some time. She walked over to the coffee machine and poured herself a cup. She quickly drank it, threw the cup in the trash and then sat down at her desk. She logged in and started doing some paperwork. 

Twenty minutes later one of her coworkers walked up to her desk and asked her: "Hey, Ramirez right? I'm Thompson, anyway we got a new case. A 17 year old got drugged at a party apparently. The mom just gave a statement and filed the charges. Think you can handle it?" Adriana looked up at the 40 year old male and nodded. "Yeah, sure, of course I'll do it. No problem. Is that the file?" Thompson confirmed and handed over the file. "Okay, so I guess I'll call the hospital then. Ask for the tox report and such. Then I'll go to the school and ask if they had any surveillance camera's. Hope they do, otherwise there's not much I can do for them." Adriana said to the man, but also to clarify things for herself. She liked having everything planned out. Deciding she would start her case right now, she picked up the phone. "Hello, this is Detective Ramirez you are speaking to. Hey Nichole, so I have this case concerning a 17 year old with a drug overdose. Name is Cardinal, Grace Cordelia Cardinal, she came in Friday evening or Saturday morning. Anyway, I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the tox report? Great, thank you. Yes, we have actually, we both just need a little more time adjusting to this new situation I think. Typical Taurus behavior? Yeah I kinda figured you were going to say something like that, Nichole. Yes, I'll be careful. Okay, you have a good day too! Bye." Adriana snorted. No matter when or why she called the hospital for any reports, Nichole was always the one to answer her phone calls. Adriana sighed as she grabbed her car keys and her phone and left to the girls school. Degrassi Community School. The school was busy, as it was a Monday morning, but she was able to find the principals office just fine. A hour later she was outside with the security tape in a small bag. The principal, a kind man in his 50's, had already shown her the images but it was evidence so she had taken it with her. On the tape it had clearly shown the 17 year old girl ordering a drink and talking to a friend, before turning away from the camera. At that moment, the guy next to her dropped something small into her drink. The guys face was visible but not very clear so Adriana hoped a talk with the people surrounding the guy would help find him. She also wanted to talk to the bartender and the friends that the victim was shown to be talking to. The principal had promised her he would identify all students shown on the tape, make a list of them and send it to her. She opened her car and left for the precinct where she would have to inform her boss on her progress and where he would probably assign a few coworkers to help her find the anonymous guy. She just really hoped they'd find him. She was about to start her car when her phone started ringing. "Hello, this is Adriana Ramirez. Who am I speaking to? Oh, hey Sophia. Er, yeah, I have some time to lunch. Where do you wanna meet? Oh right, short lunch breaks. Alright I'll come by the hospital then. I'll be there in like, one hour and thirty minutes? Okay, see you then!" 

 

"Christina! Are you coming with me or do you want to go to school? They'll understand if you don't want to go sweetie, they won't mind, but maybe it will give you a distraction. I don't think it will be good for you to come with me to the police, I need to do that myself, but you can of course." Merinda asked her daughter who was sitting up in bed having just woken up. Christina puts her hair up in a ponytail before answering her mother: "Er, I think I'll go to school. I can't miss school days, it's too important right now." Merinda nodded before kissing her daughter goodbye.   
Christina turned off her alarm and climbed out of bed. She sighed before putting on her socks. She grabbed the clothes she wanted to wear today, they were all black and comfortable, and her make-up. When she was done she looked into the mirror and was shocked at how much she suddenly resembled her sister. Maybe it was the fact that she was wearing all black clothes, which she never did, but to her it felt more like a sudden resemblance in character. Her sister was always the one who was strong, but now, Christina felt like she finally had a chance to show her strength. Whatever she then said: it didn't matter. School did right now and she was running a bit late according to the schedule she had made. She picked up a necklace her sister had given her last summer, put it on and grabbed her bag and walked downstairs she then made breakfast for herself. She knew she wouldn't be driven to school, as her mom had already left for the police precinct, so she took out her bike from the garage and left. During the ride she was constantly distracted, thinking of her sister. She didn't even mind that it was pouring with rain or that a car drove through a big puddle of water and she got almost completely soaked. She just kept biking, not even yelling at the driver. She only snorted, realizing how unimportant it was. The school day wasn't any better, it just existed of students and teachers pitifully looking at her and feeling sorry. It reminded her of when her father left and all the teachers stopped asking her questions, even though she always studied and did her homework. At lunch she decided to buy a sandwich and while she was in line waiting, she could almost hear her friends worry about her sudden change in fashion style. They all looked worried discussing something while occasionally looking her way. She sighed, they just didn't understand. She grabbed the necklace she was wearing under her sweater and just held onto it for a while. Her eyes wandered off and she found herself thinking of her sister. Had Grace been in a lot of pain when she collapsed? Was she feeling any pain right now, in her coma? Then she started seeing all the events of the past few days: her sister collapsing, her sister in the hospital, having surgery, being hooked up to all kinds of machines and then she remembered all kinds of childhood memories. She wondered why she had come, why was this so important to her and why was she here right now? She turned around and started walking away, first slowly but then fast. 

Merinda had just finished grocery shopping and was putting all of her groceries away. These upcoming days would be tiring and so she knew she wouldn't be able to do much shopping. She finished and looked at the clock, it read 1:06 PM. She calculated in how many hours Christina would be home so they could go to the hospital. All of sudden she heard the sound of keys unlocking the front door and she immediately got suspicious. Then she saw Christina riding her bike into the garage and grabbing her bag. She checked the time again. Wasn't she supposed to get home in 3 hours? Christina then entered the kitchen, placed her bag on the table and walked back to take off her coat and shoes. She then re-entered the kitchen, walked over to a cabinet, took out a glass and opened up the fridge. "Good afternoon to you too, Christina. How are you? I'm fine thanks for asking." Merinda said. Christina sighed. "Good afternoon, mom." Merinda then looked at her daughter while she poured herself a glass of sprite. "Weren't you supposed to have class until three? Did something get cancelled?" Christina sighed again. "Yes, I was supposed to. Just like all my teachers were supposed to treat me normal but hey, that didn't happen." Merinda gasped in shock. "You skipped class? Christina! That's... Your teachers just don't know what to do right now. This is bothering them too, they don't know what you want and can do." Christina rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, I guess you're right. I just couldn't handle it anymore. Can we drop it for now, please." Merinda sighed, rolled her eyes: "Fine. For now at least. Well, now that you're home I guess we could see Grace. There's no use in waiting any longer." 

"Honey, I'm just going to discuss a few things with Grace's doctor. You can come with me if you want to?" Merinda asked Christina, who shakes her head. Merinda nods and leaves the hospital room. Christina takes a step towards Grace's hospital bed, she grabs onto Grace's hand and squeezes it. "Hey big sis, how is that 'soul vacation' you're on? Remember? It's from that song that we listened to the entire summer of 2009. You were ten and I was nine and... we had the best time. It was just us that summer, you know? It felt like nobody else even existed. We had no problems, mom and dad were still together and your illness was barely noticeable. I think that was the last summer things were good, in October that year mom and dad divorced and we never were that close again. And I've just been thinking about that summer, I remember our dance sessions the best. One day we were dancing very wildly, which mom had told us not to do, and I fell and spilled a glass of water on one of dad's bibles. But you helped me get up, took care of this scratch I had gotten on my knee and then cleaned up the mess I had made by blow drying dad's bible. He and mom never even noticed. I think that says a lot about you, Grace, you're a good person and mom knows it. Which is why there was no need for you to sneak around with Zoe, I mean shit, Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to tell you. What I wanted to tell you is that that was my favorite day. And I'm sorry we've been so distant lately, I feel like we're living completely different lives and I want to change that. But you have to give me a chance to do that Grace, please. There are so many things we can still do together, maybe not a dance session but definitely something else. So keep fighting. You hear me up there, wherever the hell you are? Keep fighting, or else I will show everyone at your funeral that video of you dancing and singing along to 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' looking like a drowned vampire... I love you." Then she turned around and met up with her mom who had just finished talking to the doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's really close to my heart, especially Christina's day at school. Next chapter will be about Grace, then there's a sequel and that's it. Can't believe it!


	9. Let It Go

Grace closes her eyes and lets the roots drag her down. After a while they're almost at the bottom. She faces to the left but sees nothing but more roots. For some reason she can't look to the right, but she does hear the faint sound of someone pounding and screaming. It scares her, the sound is too loud. After a while, she doesn't know if it takes long or not, the sound is gone and she relaxes. It's not so bad down here, she decides. Swimming has always been one of her favorite things to do, she felt normal when she did. Being under water, with no air, kind off felt like a preparation for later, when she wouldn't be able to breath either. This time it was different, even though she was under water, she didn't feel the need to take a deep breath. It felt like she was wearing a scuba mask of some sort. She closed her eyes for a moment, she was so tired. "No... My baby... Gracie..." She opened her eyes in confusion. The voice sounded... like her mom? Why would her mom say this, with so much worry in her voice, she was completely fine. Then a few moments later, she can't tell how long it really took, the time seems to be completely messed up, she hears multiple voices. "Damn... Really bad... So sorry... Love you.." What? No matter how hard she tries she can't seem to untie herself to swim to the surface and really hear what the people are saying. Then: "Gr- Grace." This time she does recognize the voice, it's... Zoe. Why is Zoe there? Then another voice starts talking: "Grace... Don't know... Fierce... Strongest... Meant to be." Grace was tired, she couldn't identify this person either and it was making her drowsy. "So sorry... Not yet... Live without you." That was Zoe! Then she tried to untie herself again, struggling with the roots. She was so frustrated. What the hell is going on, why is she down here? "What happened?" "Drug overdose.... Inexperienced... Sad." Grace opened her mouth to scream, she hadn't overdosed! She had never taken drugs in her life. What were these people thinking? Then she got scared. Apparently she was in the hospital and had overdosed on drugs. But she couldn't remember ever doing that, in fact the last thing she remembered was being told not to come to the dance by Maya. After that it was just black. 

She didn't want to die. She was freaking 17. But after hearing the doctors talk, maybe it was her time. She was down here but she really wasn't, she was in the hospital and sick. She knew there was a word for the situation she was in but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what that word was. The roots only seemed to tighten when she tried to fight. Suddenly she had a thought: in books, whenever someone was in a similar situation, they always had to learn to let go. So she tried that, she let go of fighting and let herself fall deeper down, for some reason it seemed to work. When she was at the bottom of the sea, or ocean or river maybe for that matter, she found some kind of shell, it was diamond shaped and she reached for it. She picked it up and started cutting off the roots one at a time. Then before she knew it she was free, so she swam to the surface. She came up and took a deep breath. 

She missed the sea, or ocean or river or whatever, she missed water. After she came up, she didn't come out of her coma, instead, she was now on some kind of dry land. It looked like land where all the water had disappeared, so the ground was now very salty. Again, there didn't seem to be anything in sight. It was just more emptiness. She had started walking in a random direction but it didn't seem to matter, she still hadn't reached anything. She was so thirsty, she wished she had taken a sip of water before. So tired... So thirsty... Was that someone? There in the distant, a person, multiple persons she now saw. She started running. 

After running for a long time she reached the place. But the ground was sand, like in the dessert and there were a bunch of people sitting in half a circle. She ran around them and faced them. It were her mother, Tristan, Maya, Zig, Tiny and Zoe. She immediately went to hug her mother but just when her arms touched her, she disappeared. She started breathing rapidly, looking around to see where she went, then she saw. Her mother now sat across from where she was first seated. Grace guessed that she couldn't touch them, for some weird and non logical reason. Zoe then looked up to her and started speaking: "I just want you to know that I understand if you let go. If you just let things be things and leave. I don't want you to because I love you and I want to spend every minute of my time with you. So you can just let go and see where things go. I don't know what I'm supposed to say anymore. I'm sorry." Then she was gone. Grace screamed. "NO! PLEASE! Please stay with me. Please stay with me I don't know what to do. I can't let go! It doesn't work! Please tell me what I need to do to get out of here, goddammit. PLEASE!" After that she started crying but she didn't shed any tears. The others all disappeared seconds later, because when she looked up she was alone again. But this time, she saw something else, trees.

The walk towards the trees had been less long than she expected and when she reached them she was surprised. There was even a small puddle next to the trees! She ran up to it and drank it, the water tasted so good on her lips. She got up when it was all gone and tried to find support by a tree. As soon as she touched the tree, the environment changed again and she was in the middle of a forest. Out of desperation she sat down with her back to the three and just waited. And waited. After a while it actually started raining and the ground tuned into mud so she climbed the three and waited for the rain to pass. 

It took a long time, although she wasn't sure if it actually did take a long time or if she was just impatient. When it did she climbed down the three. She just reached the ground and sat down again when she heard the voice of her baby sister. "Hey big sis, how is that 'soul vacation' you're on? Remember? It's from that song that we listened to the entire summer of 2009. It was just us that summer, it felt like nobody else even existed. We had no problems, I think that was the last summer things were good and I've just been thinking about that summer. I remember our dance sessions the best. One day we were dancing very wildly and I fell and spilled a glass of water on one of dad's bibles. But you helped me get up, took care of this scratch I had gotten on my knee and then cleaned up the mess I had made by blow drying dad's bible. He and mom never even noticed." Grace listened in aww, she did remember that summer. It had been amazing. But she was confused as to why her sister was telling her this and where she was. Apparently she had missed a bit of what her sister said next but it didn't seem to matter for the story. "...So keep fighting. You hear me? Keep fighting, or else I will show everyone at your funeral that video of you dancing and singing along to 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' looking like a drowned vampire." Grace laughed, when she was 11 she went through her first 'dark' phase and very overdid her eyeliner, mascara, lipstick and foundation. Then she saw her sister, right in front of her, she spoke: "I love you." Then she was gone and Grace wanted to be mad but then she saw that three paths had been made. Maybe she was supposed to follow one of them and if she did it right she would find her sister. But she had to get up and try. So she did, she got up, chose for the second path and started walking. 

She had almost reached the end! Was this it? Did she make it? Was she gonna wake up now? But nothing happened. Until it did, she reached a snowy place. She looked around and didn't understand it. She had tried giving up, doing nothing and fighting but none of it seemed to work. What did she have to do to just wake up and live? She was so scared, she didn't want to die! She walked over to the edge and looked down. It was a very long way down and her first instinct was to take a step back, but maybe that wasn't what they wanted. Maybe they wanted her to face her fears and jump. All her life she had been fighting to not die, maybe she needed to fight to live. She couldn't just let go, do nothing or simply fight when she was always scared to die. So she took a few steps back, ran and jumped. 

In a hospital room Grace Cordelia Cardinal opens her eyes. 

"You need anything honey?" Merinda asks her daughter, who shakes her head. It's been a week since Grace woke up and there hasn't been a day where Merinda doesn't thank God for it. "I think I'm gonna go to bed, I'm kinda tired from everything. Today was a long day." Grace answers. "Well it's good to have you back here, sis." Christina says before hugging Grace. "So mom, is it okay if some of my friends come over tomorrow? They haven't seen me since I woke up." Merinda sighed. "Look honey, I would love for them to visit but it can't happen yet. We have to wait another week or two to make sure your immune system is back to where it was so you don't catch a lung infection and you can't be on your phone either because you have a mild concussion. I'm sorry." Grace nods, she thought this already but figured it was worth a shot. "I just hate being isolated. It's like when Florence and Sophia took away the intubation and I thought I could immediately start talking but nothing came out." Christina smiles: "Or when you thought you could stand up immediately, and ended up flat on your face." "Christina!" Grace and Merinda say in unison. "Well at least this time you don't have to drink a lot off water very carefully or have physiotherapy." Merinda says and Grace replies with a simple: "I guess. I just can't text, call or talk with anyone outside of this house." 

"UGH! Just kiss already!" Grace screamed at her television. After one week and two days she was finally allowed to watch television for two hours a day so she was now watching Scandal. She had to admit: it was pretty good. She sighed and rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling, she kept thinking about her friends. She still hadn't seen any of them, her mother though it would be too stressful, and she was lonely. She rolled back on her side, grabbed the remote and just when she pressed play the doorbell rang. She got up and dragged herself to the front door. She opened it, ready to tell someone to screw off, but then she stared right into the face of Zoe Rivas. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Grace said, with a cough. Zoe answered without greeting her. "I love you Grace Cordelia Cardinal. And I know our ending is inevitable, I know. I saw our future, but let's just enjoy every single minute we have together because every minute I spend with you is... Magical. And I know, I know, we can't change our ending, but maybe we can change the way there, our story. Let's change our story, Grace, because I love you. I love you and every time I think of you it leaves me breathless, completely breathless and I'm absolutely okay with that. But the question is, are you?" Grace sighs and bites her lip before answering: "When I was gone, I was still here but I couldn't wake up. I tried so many things, I gave up, did nothing, fought. But none of it worked, I didn't wake up. Not until I faced my fears and just went along with it. I'm gonna die, sometime, maybe soon maybe not. But I'm gonna die and I can't live in fear of that my entire life. All this time I spend fighting to not die, I should've fought to live. And when I did that, it took me towards life, not death. And if it taught me anything then it's that I love you too and I can't hide, I have to live. So yeah, I love you and I'm absolutely okay with being breathless together, so let's." Then they kiss softly but long and rest their foreheads against each other, catching their breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys again for reading this story. This is one of the last chapters in the story, only a sequel left to write and I can't believe it.


	10. How To Save A Life

"Bye, I'll see you soon." Grace says goodbye to Zoe and closes the front door. After Zoe showed up yesterday afternoon, they talked the entire night. Graces mom had let Zoe sleep over, giving an understanding 'I was young once' look, and in the morning they all had breakfast together. During which, Grace introduced Zoe as her girlfriend and Merinda and Christina looked at both and said "Well, it's about time." Grace was sad she had to say goodbye to Zoe, they had been apart for so long, she just wanted to spend every minute with her. But she was also very tired, so she understood why she couldn't spend any more time with Zoe. She was actually planning on going to bed, when the house phone rang. She picked it up. 

"Hello, Mrs Cardinal? This is Adriana Ramirez, I'm calling about the police investigation that is going on concerning your daughter." "Hi, Adriana, this is Grace Cardinal. My mom isn't home, but you can talk to me." "Okay then, Grace, it's good to talk to you again. I hope you're doing a bit better. Anyways, I have some bad news. We've been unable to find the person that roofied you. We have made a decent sketch, the one that I showed you, and we have camera footage but I showed all your friends and everyone else that was there that night them, they didn't recognize him. They had never seen him around Degrassi or anywhere else. I also went through similar past cases and I asked all of my coworkers but that didn't work out either. I'm sorry, Grace, but there's not much else I can do for you. I hope that he got too scared from what happened to you that he's never going to do it again, but if he does we at least have the security tapes, witnesses and sketch from your case. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you might help others in the future and I hope that can be somewhat of a consolation." "I- I don't know what to say, I'm sorry." With that, the phone call ended. 

"Grace! Come on honey, you're gonna be late." Merinda urges her daughter from downstairs. "Yeah yeah, I had to make sure I looked okay. You know? Make a good impression, I haven't seen them in like a month. Seriously, it's been a month. The dance was on November 27th, then I've been home ever since December 9th, which was two and a half weeks ago. I mean, it's the end of the year already. The Christmas Holiday starts tomorrow or today, depending on how you look at it. Isn't that weird? I want to go back to school so bad, then when I'm finally allowed to, it's on the last day of school." Merinda sighs, they've had this conversation multiple times this week and she had kinda gotten tired of her daughter just having to much time on her hands. "Yes honey, I know. You want to see your friends more often I get it. But trust me, once this day is over, you'll be tired. No matter if it's just a very short day, with a small celebration because of the new year and Christmas. It'll drain you and that's okay, you have to get used to it. Plus, during the holiday you'll have plenty of time to catch up on all that homework and all those tests that you missed. Oh, and you can work on your projects, the ones you got extensions on etcetera. You'll have plenty of stuff to do." With a smile, Merinda closed the door behind her sighing, oldest daughter. 

"Okay, bye mom. Thanks for dropping me off. I'll see you soon, love you too. Bye!" With that, Grace waved her mom goodbye, turned around and faced the school. She took in a few deep breaths. All of sudden she remembered something, from that day, November 27th, she was at the exact same place. She was wondering if anyone in Degrassi history had ever messed up as big as she had. Grace laughs, it seemed like such a weird question now, of course there had been. There had been students who made mistakes, maybe not all of them as big as hers, but a lot of them may have been. That's what happens when you're a person, you make mistakes. That's life.   
She entered the school to find no one was there to greet her. She got worried, Zoe had told her what had happened the night of the dance. She had also told her that the group of friends had visited the hospital multiple times and that they blamed themselves, not her. But what if Zoe had been wrong, why else wouldn't they be here right now? And speaking of Zoe, where was she? Then Grace heard the sound of a piano coming from the gymnasium. She walked up to the big doors and opened them.

There were rows of people, just standing in the gymnasium on different sides, clearing out a small path in the middle. They were all dressed fancy, just like how the gymnasium had been decorated. Then, while walking through the path in the middle, Grace noticed that there was a band on stage, but she only heard a piano playing. Before she knew it a person started singing.

"Step one, you say we need to talk.  
He walks, you say: sit down it's just a talk.  
He stares politely back at you.  
You stare politely right on through."

Grace is confused. Why is this happening? And who is singing? Then the lights hit the stage and she could finally see what was going on. The person singing was Miles Hollingsworth and Grace is slightly confused. But then she sees the other members: Tristan is standing next to Miles a bit more to the left side. Maya and Zig are standing side by side as well, but they're standing more to the right, both are playing guitar. Then next to Miles and Tristan is Tiny, playing the drums. And next to Maya and Zig, and next to the drums, is a piano. The piano is being played by the person that makes Graces heart flutter: Zoe. Maya, Zig and Zoe then joined in to sing the song. 

"Between the lines of fear and blame."

Then Tristan, as well as Miles, joined in. 

"You begin to wonder why you came."

Zig and Zoe, who looked up from her piano and immediately found Grace in the crowd, sang next. 

"Where did I go wrong?"

Maya, still playing her guitar, got the next part.

"I lost a friend."

Zoe joined Maya, which Grace though was kinda odd.

"Somewhere along in the bitterness."

Then all of them joined in again and sang the rest of the chorus.

"And I would have stayed up with you all night.  
Had I known how to save a life."

 

At the end of the song, Grace was in tears. There was something about being back in the place where so much went wrong, while also seeing your friends sing you a song and showing you they care about you. Most of all she couldn't believe Zoe had organized it, or so she was to believe from the little bow all the others gave Zoe at the end of the song. The students all cheered them on and she joined them, smiling bright. The members all exited the stage and Simpson asked her to come on stage. Which she did. He told her he was very happy to see her back at Degrassi and asked her to open the dance, which wasn't as big as a usual dance but he said they wanted to organize something specifically for her. Which she though was also so nice, it almost brought tears to her eyes again. After she opened the dance, and people cheered her on, she exited the stage and searched for Zoe. She found her, standing in front of the group, looking even more beautiful than ever. "Have I told you that I loved you yet?" Grace said. Zoe smiled: "Not today, no." Grace bit her lip before emotionally answering: "Well I do, I love you Zoe Rivas." "I love you too, Grace Cordelia Cardinal." "Really?" "Of course Dummy." With that, they kissed, while they heard their friends cheer in the background. They quickly finished the kiss, not wanting to be too PDA in front of their friends. Zoe turned around to stand next to her, grabbing her hand, and letting her be able to see all the people she had missed so much. The next few minutes were a mess of people hugging Grace and all kinds of grouphugs. But they didn't really have the time to talk as the music was very loud, so they just danced. 

Two hours later most of the students had gone home and since only a few of them remained, the music had been tuned down. Tiny, Shay, Lola, Ezra, Tristan, Miles, Zig, Maya, Zoe and Grace were all sitting down at a huge table in the now empty gymnasium. "It's really good to have you back Grace, I missed you." Tiny says, while holding Shays hand. Grace smiles, "I missed you too Tiny. But... when did that happen?", she says while pointing towards the two holding hands. "Not too long ago, we're just taking it very slow." Grace smiles, before saying good. But then she turns to Lola. "And who is this?" Ezra fakes being shocked at Grace dismissing him and answers for Lola: "I can speak for myself. I'm Ezra. We met... three weeks ago at Lola's I think. Anyways, I liked her but she was having a rough time so I decided to leave it. But then I came back yesterday and she asked me to come with her, so I said yes." Lola smiles at Ezra before squeezing his hand, "I think our first date is going really well.", she says and Ezra nods confirming. Grace sighs, then says: "Too bloody romantic. How about you Novak? Anyone new in sights?" Zig is drinking but has to cough when he hears Grace ask him about his love life. "No one new, no. I have my eyes set on someone I've known a long time but I messed up, so now I'm waiting for her." He says, still coughing. Maya gives him a few helpful slaps on his back, "I just need a bit more time, to forgive someone is difficult.", she says with a half-smile, "But I'm really glad you're back to Grace, I missed you a lot. And I'm sorry-", she starts. "NO! God why does everyone always feel the need to apologize, we get it. We're all really sorry we messed up. We went over this Maya come on.", Tristan says semi-angry. "It's okay, I'm sorry too Maya. And I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you about my diagnosis, I just really don't like talking about it. People always start treating me different when I do and I don't want you guys to do that." Grace says, looking down. "It's okay, Grace, like Tristan said: we've all made mistakes." Miles tells her, then he winks at Tristan before picking up his glass and giving a toast: "To Grace!" And everyone joins in, saying: "To Grace!" 

Lola starts a conversation with Miles: "So, Miles, how is Frankie? I haven't talked to her in awhile, I needed to be alone and some other things happened between us." Miles hesitates before answering Lola: "Yeah I heard. She's fine, she and Jonah are doing great as a couple. But, the reason why she had to blew you off that Saturday is because something else was going on. At the last dance, Hunter brought a gun to school. He had this screwed up plan to hurt some people but he couldn't do it. Then at home he was thinking off killing himself, so I researched his symptoms, talked to a psychiatric at the hospital when me and Zoe visited Grace and... He has something called Intermittent Explosive Disorder, it's when you have outbursts of anger where you want to either hurt others or yourself. We were very lucky to have caught it before something really bad happened, but that was what we were busy with that Saturday. It was extremely chaotic. You should call Frankie, she wanted to call you but she was scared you'd be mad at her." The whole group stared at Miles in shock. Lola nodded, saying a soft "I will." Then Zig spoke up: "Can you tell Hunter I'm really sorry I said he was a psycho? He shouldn't be thinking that of himself. It was incredibly stupid of me to say that to his face and I shouldn't have done it. I know what it can lead to and... It was just very stupid of me, you can tell him that." Miles nods, appreciating Zigs apology: "Thank you for saying that, I will tell him what you said. He's having a lot of therapy and medication right now, we hope that he can attend school again in January." 

Ezra has been staring at Grace for some time now and she's kinda crept out by it. "Excuse me, why are you looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong or?" Ezra shakes his head: "No, no. Absolutely not. I'm sorry for asking you this but, was your nurse in the hospital maybe named Florence?" Grace looks at the boy in surprise before nodding: "Yeah that was her name. How come you know that?" Ezra smiles: "That's my sister! She told me a little about your story and it stuck with me." Grace smiles as well but her smile then fades. "Could you maybe tell her she was amazingly nice? I never had a chance to do so in the hospital and I feel really bad about not thanking all my doctors and nurses." Ezra nods but then takes out his phone, hooks it up to a projector and video calls his sister. "Now you can thank her yourself!" He laughs.

The call gets picked up and it takes a few seconds but there she is. Florence laughs at the sight of a trashed gymnasium and a bunch of high school students. "Looks good little brother, what did you do?" Ezra laughs: "Nothing! We're just hanging out a bit, we're the last students to be here that's all. But there's someone here who really wants to thank you." Then he shows Florence Grace, who smiles and thanks Florence for all the hard work. "Oh honey, you don't need to thank me for that! But speaking of your case, I'm actually here with two other people who you may recall." Then Florence reveals Sophia and Adriana to also be there. "No way.", Grace responds, "Hi Sophia and Adriana! I can't believe this. But, you two were the last people I wanted to thank. Sophia for taking such good care of me and Adriana for trying your absolute best with what you were giving." "You're welcome!", Adriana and Sophia say in unison. Then Ezra takes over the phone again and tells Florence to: 'look who else is here?' Everybody in the gymnasium tries to squeeze them self into the frame and all of them laugh, recognizing each other from all kinds of places. Grace and Zoe look at each other smiling, Zoe sighs before saying: "Looks like everything will be working out this year." Zig answers her: "Yeah, guess it will." Maya tilts her head, saying: "I wonder what-" But she doesn't get a chance to finish that sentences because everyone interrupts her saying "NO!" ItMs quite for a few seconds before Grace says: "We're not gonna think about next year, that's like a curse. You have to live by the moment you know, let it go?" Everyone nods and replies: "Amen, sister." They all laugh, before both the frames from the students and the adults freeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finished... I just don't even know what to think or say. I hadn't expected this story to do this well and so I want to thank everyone for reading and leaving kudos! Now for the future, I'm taking a week, or maybe more, off to just figure out what story I'm going to be writing next. I have like 25 ideas for stories that I want to write, a lot of them for other shows. But you can definitely expect another Degrassi: Next Class story soon. Tot ziens!

**Author's Note:**

> (Italics indicated a flashback.)  
> Anyway: thank you for reading this story. If you liked it: let me know! If you have any ideas for me to improve my writing: also let me know.


End file.
